James Franco shows off his talent with his Milk’ man

Ed Symkus

Friday

Nov 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 28, 2008 at 12:01 AM

Interview with James Franco, co-star of Gus Van Sant's "Milk."

Most of us first came across James Franco in the offbeat and short-lived TV show “Freaks and Geeks,” in which he played the non-geeky “cool guy” Daniel, and managed to find plenty of opportunities to show off his big smile. But his film career has been made up of far more serious roles: an army ranger in “The Great Raid,” an American pilot in the French military in “Flyboys,” Peter Parker’s angry best friend in the “Spider-Man” series and now Scott Smith, the partner of gay activist Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) in Gus Van Sant’s new film “Milk.”

In person, Franco is relaxed and easygoing. He speaks very slowly, after carefully forming his thoughts before answering any questions. That big smile emerges regularly, and he appears to be something of a Renaissance man, dabbling in all sorts of artistic ventures between films.

How did you get the part in “Milk?”

I’ve known Gus for about five years. He and I had a mutual friend, a painter whose studio I was working at. I was doing a play that I had co-written and directed and acted in, and our friend brought Gus to it. We met there and saw each other every so often and talked about possible projects. Two summers ago I was in England studying literature. My agents called and said that Gus was doing this movie. I grew up in the Bay area and knew a little bit about Harvey Milk, but not much. So I did a little research, and learned that Gus had been trying to make the movie for many years. Just being the biggest Gus Van Sant fan, knowing how important the movie was to him, and how important the story was, I sent an e-mail and said I’d do anything in this movie, just to be a part of it. When I got back we met and talked, and thank God, he gave me this great role.

You seem to be playing a kind of housewife part to Sean Penn’s Harvey Milk.

Well, I’d never been offered the housewife role before, and I thought it was a good opportunity to play something different. When we started rehearsing and started researching who the real Scott Smith was, I figured, well, this movie’s called “Milk,” it’s not called “Smith.” One of the big roles in Scott Smith’s life was that he was that supportive person for the real Harvey Milk. In this movie, Harvey is breaking the ground, he’s ambitious, he’s a dreamer. It was important to play the person who was going to be the emotional grounding to those huge ambitions.

Is it a big challenge for you to portray a real person?

There are a lot of challenges. Some actors find that when you’re playing a real person who wasn’t necessarily famous, that maybe being too loyal to their mannerisms could be a hindrance. But I like to do as much research as I can, and find what the real thing is. It’s hard to find a lot of stuff on Scott. But he was with Harvey for four years and was a big part of his life. I talked to Danny Nicoletta, I talked to Cleve Jones and to Frank Robinson. I talked to everybody I could find that knew him. And everybody had different stories, because you have different relationships with different friends. As an actor you take all those different perspectives, and boil it down to something that can be acted and that can fit into the rest of the movie. I also talked to Rob Epstein, the director of [the documentary] “The Times of Harvey Milk.” Scott was in that film for maybe five seconds. I asked Rob if he had any footage that didn’t make it into the movie, and he did. He had an old film reel in a vault and he put it on DVD for me, so I finally got to see an extended interview with Scott Smith, from the period, which was great.

How did you get in touch with your inner goofball for “Pineapple Express?”

I’d been doing a lot of what were purported to be dramas (laughs). Then I ran into [“Freaks and Geeks” producer-writer] Judd Apatow at a film festival in Austin. I was showing “The Ape,” a tiny film that I directed that I thought was pretty funny. Judd came to see it and said, “Hey, I miss the funny Franco.” And I was doing plays that I had written. They weren’t out and out comedies, but they were funny — they were black comedies. Judd said, “You’re doing all these dramas, but then when you write your own stuff, it’s going towards comedy; maybe that’s what you should be doing.” That’s how “Pineapple Express” came about.

How do you think the straight dudes who loved “Pineapple Express” will react to “Milk?”

I don’t know (laughs). I basically saw “Pineapple Express” as a love story. I played that character like I was in love with Seth Rogen’s character. So they’ve already been bathed in that. But I don’t know how they’ll react. I hope “Milk” raises awareness. If anybody that saw me in “Pineapple Express” and maybe wouldn’t normally see “Milk” goes because they like Saul from “Pineapple Express,” I think that’s a good thing.

You said that you like to do a lot of research. Did you do much research for your love scenes with Sean Penn?

In most of the other movies I’ve done, I had at least one kissing scene with a female actor. And I don’t think it would have flown if I said, “Hey, we should go research that love scene back in my hotel.” (laughs) Most people know how kiss, so you just show up and do it, and that’s it.

“Milk” is now playing.

Ed Symkus can be reached at esymkus@cnc.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.